Steven Kaplan and Sanford Weiner in the Jewish Journal: A victory against anti-Israel BDS

Israelis and supporters of Israel are increasingly concerned about international pressure — and with good reason.
There was last year’s directive from the European Union, which threatened important Israel-EU cooperation; the
recent uproar about SodaStream, which brought Israel unflattering media attention; and the almost daily news
of some European country singling out an Israeli company for negative treatment.

Are these victories for the global BDS movement — the movement calling on people and nations to boycott, divest
from and sanction Israel? Absolutely not.

The BDS movement treats Israel and the occupied territories as a single entity, seeing everything Israeli as a
legitimate target for activism and thus, in effect, ignoring the Green Line — the 1949 Armistice line between
Israel and the occupied territories. Supporters of this kind of BDS can find their mirror image in settlers
and Greater Israel ideologues who want to erase the Green Line, in order to promote permanent Israeli control of
the occupied territories.

In contrast, the current wave of pressure on Israel is a resounding rejection of efforts to ignore or erase the
Green Line. This pressure, which has so shaken up Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he recently
attacked U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for merely pointing out the danger of isolation facing Israel, is at
its core a powerful affirmation of Israel’s legitimacy as a state, coupled with an equally powerful condemnation of
Israel’s actions and policies beyond the Green Line.

Let’s look at what this pressure is really about. The EU directive targeted Israeli support for settlements, not
Israel itself. The SodaStream uproar was solely about its policy of manufacturing its products in a
settlement, not its Israeli ownership. These and other recent developments are a clear challenge both to those who
support BDS against Israel and to those who support settlements. These developments are, on the other hand, a
victory for Israel — an affirmation of support for Israel as a legitimate, sovereign nation that can only survive
and thrive if the occupation ends.

Israel’s Shalom Achshav movement and its U.S. sister organization, Americans for Peace Now (APN), have long worked
to shine a bright light on the Green Line, delineating our strong support for Israel within its recognized,
sovereign territory but our rejection of occupation. We do this precisely because we are committed to Israel and
its survival as a healthy democracy and a Jewish state.

When APN and Shalom Achshav first came out endorsing boycotting settlements and settlement products, many in Israel
and the American-Jewish world were critical and dismissive. Some said such a policy was meaningless, as
settlement-related economic activity is limited. Today, it is indisputable that highlighting the Green Line and
targeting settlements is having real impact.

Some said such a policy would only encourage BDS against Israel. In truth, decades of international indifference
and impotence in the face of deepening Israeli occupation has led many people of conscience, including people who
care deeply about Israel, to despair of finding a way to change Israel’s pro-settlement policies — and neither
hasbara nor anti-boycott legislation will counteract this phenomenon. Given this reality, the only
convincing answer to calls for BDS against Israel is supporting Israel by boycotting the settlements and
challenging the occupation.

Make no mistake: Getting the world to adopt policies that distinguish between Israel and the occupied territories
is a victory against those whose goal is to challenge the legitimacy not simply of settlements, but of Israel’s
very existence. If we can’t succeed in doing so, others will succeed in isolating and delegitimizing Israel.

Steven Kaplan is a Los Angeles labor lawyer and Americans for Peace Now regional co-chair. He is one of the
founders of Progressive Jewish Alliance. Sanford Weiner is a regional co-chair and national board member of
Americans for Peace Now. He is co-founder of Social Studies School Service and active in the Jewish community and
political activities.